Man convicted of murdering pregnant ex-girlfriend

A 39-year-old Derry man has today been convicted of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Stephen Cahoon of Harvey Street, admitted killing 30-year-old Jean Teresa Quigley on July 26, 2008, but denied her murder.

He strangled the mother-of-four in the bedroom of her home in Cornshell Fields in Derry.

It took the jury at the Central Criminal Court nearly five hours to return the unanimous verdict.

Cahoon claimed he snapped and strangled Jean Quigley when she told him the baby she was carrying wasn't his and that she was going to abort it.

He had called to her house at 2am despite the fact Quigley had recently ended their four-month relationship, telling friends she was afraid of her former boyfriend.

It was her mother Emma who found her battered body.

Mr Justice Barry White said he would have considered life even if the jury had returned a manslaughter verdict, having heard the 39-year-old has served time for beating up two other women.

The judge called him a danger to society in general and women in particular.

The case made legal history as it is the first time a defendant has been tried in the Republic under the Criminal Justice Jurisdiction Act 1976 for a non-terrorist crime committed in the North.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the conviction demonstrates how the law can be used to bring to justice to perpetrators of serious crimes, no matter where.

“Stephen Cahoon is one such individual. He is a dangerous sexual predator with a history of violence against women. He deserves to stay behind bars for a very long time,” the PSNI said.

“But our thoughts today should be with Jean Quigley’s children and her family circle. We hope that, in time, today’s outcome will go some small way to bring comfort to them for the loss and pain which they have suffered.”

Cahoon had been put up for re-trial after a separate jury failed to reach a verdict in July 2009.

Ms Quigley was found by her mother Emma McBride, naked, badly bruised and strangled to death.

Cahoon, of Harvey Street in Derry, went on the run over the border after the killing and 10 days later was arrested by gardaí in Donegal.

He started a brief but intense relationship with Ms Quigley in March 2008 but that deteriorated when she fell pregnant. The couple split up and weeks before her death Ms Quigley told her killer she wanted him out of her life.

The court was told he did not call an ambulance or the police because he hoped she was still alive.

Members of the Quigley family shouted “cheerio, you f****** scumbag” as Cahoon was led away by prison guards.

They had cried as their victim impact statements were read in court by barristers, who revealed the lives of Ms Quigley’s children – Dylan, Jordan, Cole and Chanice – have been turned upside down.

There has been a considerable change in their personalities and behaviour and they do not understand why their mother is not coming home again, the court heard.

Fridays used to be “mammy night”, but had become “granny’s night”.

Ms McBride revealed the sight of Ms Quigley’s bruised and battered dead body has left her with nightmares.

“The very thought of Jean leaves her crying,” barristers continued. “It has been very hard.”

Detectives revealed Cahoon had two previous convictions and was jailed for assaulting and threatening to kill a former partner and indecently assaulting another woman.

Mr Justice Barry White told Cahoon he was a danger to society, particularly women.

“Had the verdict of this jury been one of manslaughter, given your previous offensive behaviour towards women it appears you are a danger to society in general and women in particular, I would have had to give serious consideration to imposing a life sentence,” he added.